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Sailors are taught if the sunrise is red to take warning. The day ahead will be dangerous. "Red Sky at night, Sailors delight; Red Sky in the morning, Sailor's take warning." It may also be said as; "Red at morning, Sailors warning; Red at night, Sailors delight," or "Red sky at night, Sailor's delight; Red sky at morn, Sailor be warned."
When weather systems predominantly move from west to east, a red sky at night indicates that the high pressure air (and better weather) is westwards. In the morning the light is eastwards, and so a red sky then indicates the high pressure (and better weather) has already passed, and an area of low pressure is following behind. [11] A red sunrise.
The common phrase "red sky at morning" is a line from an ancient rhyme often repeated with variants by mariners [1] and others: Red sky at night, sailors' delight. Red sky at morning, sailors take warning.
The clouds do not become that color; they are reflecting long and unscattered rays of sunlight, which are predominant at those hours. The effect is much like if a person were to shine a red spotlight on a white sheet. In combination with large, mature thunderheads this can produce blood-red clouds.
Noctilucent clouds form mostly near the polar regions, [7] because the mesosphere is coldest there. [15] Clouds in the southern hemisphere are about 1 km (3,300 ft) higher than those in the northern hemisphere. [7] Ultraviolet radiation from the Sun breaks water molecules apart, reducing the amount of water available to form noctilucent clouds.
More and more water accumulates on the seed until a visible cloud is formed. In the case of ship tracks, the cloud seeds are stretched over a long narrow path where the wind has blown the ship's exhaust, so the resulting clouds resemble long strings over the ocean. [2] Ship tracks are a type of homogenitus cloud. [3]
Particles in the air scatter short-wavelength light (blue and green) through Rayleigh scattering much more strongly than longer-wavelength yellow and red light. Loosely, the term crepuscular rays is sometimes extended to the general phenomenon of rays of sunlight that appear to converge at a point in the sky, irrespective of time of day. [3] [4]
The Rayleigh sky causes a clearly defined polarization pattern under many different circumstances. The degree of polarization however, does not always remain consistent and may in fact decrease in different situations. The Rayleigh sky may undergo depolarization due to nearby objects such as clouds and large reflecting surfaces such as the ocean.